1 year vs. 3 year rabies shot for cats

It is time to take my 13 month old indoor cat to the vet for her rabies shot. My dad's friend's wife is a vet, and she said the cats only need a rabies shot every 3 years, but our vet only offers the yearly shot. Is there really a difference between the two shots, or is the one year shot just a scam? If there is a difference, is the three year shot harder on their bodies? We might consider switching vets if the three year shot is better for our pets. Thanks!

I have a friend who does reduced vaccinating (I do too, to some degree) and she says the 3 year shot has a higher instance of cancer? I haven't really looked into it much. She gets the yearly shot. I took one of our dogs to the vet yesterday to get his yearly shot (he had one a year ago as a puppy) and I asked to get the 1 year shot because I couldn't remember the exact date he had it the year before (when he was at the rescue) and she said it was the same shot, they just either give it every year or every three years. I haven't really been interested enough to look into it.

Please spay and neuter your pets. Shelters are full of carelessly bred animals! There are dogs and cats dying every day because there just aren't enough homes!

I would get the vaccine product insert for each and compare the ingredients. If I had to do the shots I would probably go with the 3 year since I remember my cats getting very ill each time we vaccinated them.I would want to spread out the stress on their bodies by doing it every 3 years. Best wishes!

I am a veterinary technician and work at an animal hospital.
We do it this way:
dogs first rabies vaccine is a 1 year vaccine. After that, it is a 3 year vaccine. This comes from the same bottle.
cats- we only offer yearly vaccine. It has to do with the manufacturing of the vaccine itself. Some companies sell three year rabies vaccines, but we do not use those.

In tech school, I was taught that cats only need to be vaccinated every three years.

What you can do, is in one year from the rabies vaccine- you can have the vet do a 'rabies titer test' which will check to see if your cat still has immunity toward rabies. if it does, it does not need to be re-vaccinated.

“I know God will not give me anything I can’t handle. I just wish He didn’t trust me so much.” (Mother Teresa)

I was always told that they are one and the same vaccine...one and three year has to do with the tag. So IMO, the one year is a ripoff because while you are paying more for the three year (usually three time what the one year costs) you will only have to pay once for the vet visit vs. paying for it three times if you go with only the one year. The one year vaccine will actually last three years but it is the tag/license you are paying for. IMO, the fewer shots you can get away with, the better, and here's a great book to support that idea and give some other great pet advice besides: "How To Afford Veterinary Care Without Mortgaging The Kids". Dr. Busby also has a website that talks about avoiding what the veterinary community has made commonplace as accepted treatment protocol, often to the detriment of people's pets and checkbooks.

As rabies shots go, I only ever give the three year rabies to dogs and cats.

Edited by duckluck - 7/15/10 at 6:44am

Fine Welsh Cob sporthorses since 1992 with multiple championships; provisional judge for Welsh, member Arabian Horse Assn. Breeding and showing Call ducks. NPIP #1197, ABA Life Member #613, IWBA; ABA AND National Call Breeders of America Life Member and Master Exhibitor. Illinois Pullorum tester. I have a few Call ducks available. PM for details!

Fine Welsh Cob sporthorses since 1992 with multiple championships; provisional judge for Welsh, member Arabian Horse Assn. Breeding and showing Call ducks. NPIP #1197, ABA Life Member #613, IWBA; ABA AND National Call Breeders of America Life Member and Master Exhibitor. Illinois Pullorum tester. I have a few Call ducks available. PM for details!

I had a cat back who back in the early 90s developed a big fast scary injection-site mass that the histology lab never could identify but that was probably an early stage of vaccination-site sarcoma. So I am a bit paranoid about these things.

What I've been told by my current vets is that they cannot legally (in Ontario - I am sure it varies in different places) give me the 1 yr shot and *call* it a 3-year shot, but that they feel it probably IS protective to that degree. The only 3-year shot they can legally offer is one with the older adjuvant that is related to higher rates of vaccination-site sarcomas, which I choose to avoid.

Because up til this summer I've been taking the cats across the border with me when I go to visit my parents in PA, and NEED up to date rabies papers for that, I've been grudgingly getting the 1-year shot for them every year (but not in combination with any other shots). However now that my parents are in a retirement home and I can't take the cats with me anymore, I am either going to get the 1-year vaccine done every few years at most, or see what options are available in terms of getting titers done.

Thanks! I will get the one year shot this time, but I will talk to my vet about the three year shot. I am wondering if we even need to get her a rabies shot though, since she is an inside cat. But, I think it's a law. I don't know, she is going to the vet sometime this week (we still need to schedule the appointment), so I will let you know.